۞ أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى ٱلَّذِينَ نَافَقُوا۟ يَقُولُونَ لِإِخْوَٰنِهِمُ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ مِنْ أَهْلِ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ لَئِنْ أُخْرِجْتُمْ لَنَخْرُجَنَّ مَعَكُمْ وَلَا نُطِيعُ فِيكُمْ أَحَدًا أَبَدًۭا وَإِن قُوتِلْتُمْ لَنَنصُرَنَّكُمْ وَٱللَّهُ يَشْهَدُ إِنَّهُمْ لَكَٰذِبُونَ
Have you not regarded the hypocrites who say to their brethren, the faithless from among the People of the Book, ‘If you are expelled, we will surely go out with you, and we will never obey anyone against you, and if you are fought against we will surely help you,’ and Allah bears witness that they are indeed liars.
لَئِنْ أُخْرِجُوا۟ لَا يَخْرُجُونَ مَعَهُمْ وَلَئِن قُوتِلُوا۟ لَا يَنصُرُونَهُمْ وَلَئِن نَّصَرُوهُمْ لَيُوَلُّنَّ ٱلْأَدْبَٰرَ ثُمَّ لَا يُنصَرُونَ
Surely, if they were expelled they will not go out with them, and if they were fought against they will not help them, and [even if] they were to help them they will turn their backs [to flee] and eventually they will not be helped.
لَأَنتُمْ أَشَدُّ رَهْبَةًۭ فِى صُدُورِهِم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَوْمٌۭ لَّا يَفْقَهُونَ
Indeed they have a greater awe of you in their hearts than of Allah. That is because they are a lot who do not understand.
لَا يُقَٰتِلُونَكُمْ جَمِيعًا إِلَّا فِى قُرًۭى مُّحَصَّنَةٍ أَوْ مِن وَرَآءِ جُدُرٍۭ ۚ بَأْسُهُم بَيْنَهُمْ شَدِيدٌۭ ۚ تَحْسَبُهُمْ جَمِيعًۭا وَقُلُوبُهُمْ شَتَّىٰ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَوْمٌۭ لَّا يَعْقِلُونَ
They will not fight against you together except in fortified townships or from behind walls. Their fierceness is great only within themselves. You suppose them to be united, but their hearts are divided. That is because they are a lot who do not exercise their reason,
كَمَثَلِ ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ قَرِيبًۭا ۖ ذَاقُوا۟ وَبَالَ أَمْرِهِمْ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌۭ
just like those who tasted the evil consequence of their conduct recently before them, and there is a painful punishment for them.
كَمَثَلِ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنِ إِذْ قَالَ لِلْإِنسَٰنِ ٱكْفُرْ فَلَمَّا كَفَرَ قَالَ إِنِّى بَرِىٓءٌۭ مِّنكَ إِنِّىٓ أَخَافُ ٱللَّهَ رَبَّ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
[The hypocrites are] like Satan when he tells man to disbelieve, but when he disbelieves, he says, ‘I am absolved of you. Indeed I fear Allah, the Lord of all the worlds.’
فَكَانَ عَٰقِبَتَهُمَآ أَنَّهُمَا فِى ٱلنَّارِ خَٰلِدَيْنِ فِيهَا ۚ وَذَٰلِكَ جَزَٰٓؤُا۟ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ
So the fate of both is that they will be in the Fire, to remain in it [forever]. Such is the requital of the wrongdoers.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Having praised the three ranks of the faithful, the sura turns to those who worked against them: the hypocrites who egged Banu al-Nadir on. All six sources read verses 11-13 as the exposure of a lie: 'Abd Allah b. Ubayy and his circle promised the Jews, 'If you are expelled we go out with you... if you are fought we help you,' and God brands them liars before the fact -- for, as Tabarsi and Tusi stress, the verse was revealed before the expulsion and was then vindicated exactly. Al-Mizan, Tabarsi and Tusi all explain v.13 -- that the hypocrites 'dread you more than God' -- by their ignorance: they see the believers but do not know God, in whose hand the whole affair lies.
A house divided. Verse 14 pictures an enemy who fights only 'from fortified townships or behind walls,' whose 'violence among themselves is severe' and whose hearts, for all their apparent unity, are 'divided.' Al-Mizan makes this disunity the very engine of their defeat; Tabarsi and Tusi note the reading that the scattered hearts are those of the hypocrites and People of the Book together (Mujahid). Verse 15 likens them to 'those before them recently who tasted the evil consequence of their affair' -- identified by Qummi and (as one option) Tabarsi, Tusi and al-Mizan as Banu Qaynuqa', the earlier Medinan Jewish clan whom the same hypocrite had failed; al-Zuhri's alternative, the slain of Badr, is noted and judged less fitting.
The parable of Satan. Verses 16-17 seal the section: the hypocrites are 'like Satan when he says to man, 'Disbelieve,' then when he disbelieves says, 'I am quit of you.'' Al-Mizan gives the plain reading -- Satan lures man with false promises, then disowns him when the Hereafter dawns -- while noting two traditional anchors: the Israelite ascetic Barsisa (told in full by Tabarsi and Tusi from Ibn 'Abbas, and in the narrations of al-Mizan), and Satan's flight at Badr (8:48). Qummi ties the parable directly to 'Abd Allah b. Ubayy and Banu al-Nadir. Bahrani's entry here is only a cross-reference back to its opening narrative. All agree on the verdict of v.17: deceiver and deceived alike abide in the Fire. (Web-verified: tafsir tradition broadly, including Ibn Kathir and Qurtubi, cites Barsisa for v.16, treating it as isra'iliyyat.)